GMOs are perhaps the most popular and most incomprehensible horror story of recent years. Some scientists say that consuming certain genetically modified organisms can turn you into an ear of corn, or even a creature with gills; others, hearing this, twist their finger at their temples and invite all alarmists to familiarize themselves with basic scientific knowledge.

The paths are different, but the result is the same

Blue roses, purple cabbage, the fresh smell of tomatoes in the dead of winter and non-perishable apples - all this is the result of the work of scientists, which eventually received the name “genetically modified organisms”. These are artificially bred organisms whose genotype contains a foreign gene, which scientists took from one living creature and implanted into another. At the same time, the body undergoes changes and new properties appear.

How are genetic modifications made? Here is one of possible ways. In nature, there is a species of agrobacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. They are able to penetrate plant tissue and transfer a fragment of the so-called T-DNA into their cells. Agrobacteria with a modified T-plasmid change the properties of plants and insert useful genes into them. However, is it only the same plants that change in this way?

Few people know that real carrots are far from orange, and their true color is purple. There were also varieties of raspberry, white and yellow flowers. Carrots were not used for food, but were remedy. Only in the 16th century did it acquire an orange hue, and we owe this to scientist breeders who began to cross different species. Real carrots Today the thing is very rare and expensive. That is, the carrots we all know are GMO? No! It is the result of selection, but selection is slow, and GMOs are produced quickly, although the result is the same - the genotype changes.

So why are we arguing about the benefits and harms of GMOs? It is believed that they are the result of mutations, since, unlike selection, they do not come from closely related organisms, but from very distant ones, and this is bad. Although GMOs are carefully monitored, and scientists know and understand which plants should be bred and how, and which should not be grown. For example, those that are not susceptible to disease are more productive and inedible for pests - and can and should be removed. But not all plants can benefit people if they are subjected to changes. For example, there is hardly any point in breeding plants that are resistant to herbicides - that is, to chemicals that destroy vegetation. This is precisely where innovation should not be applied.

I know that I don’t know anything, but I can judge

It is interesting that, according to the results of one survey, more than a third of Russians do not have the knowledge necessary to at least somehow evaluate GMOs. For example, many people do not know that the plants we eat are not genetically identical. There are always some mutations in any tomato we eat, and in every banana there may be a gene that has been changed without our knowledge. But it is not the insidious Americans from the DARPA agency, not space aliens and not the movie “Dr. Evil” who care about this, but primarily solar radiation and other sources of genetic variability. Gene mutation is a natural process in nature without which biological evolution is impossible.

Good example- emergence of dwarf rice in China. Tall rice bends under its own weight and may fall to the ground and rot. New form rice, bred by selective breeding methods, increased its yield by 50 percent. Later it turned out that dwarf rice differs from ordinary rice in just one single gene. If a modern genetic engineer were to approach the problem of rice yield, he would introduce a point mutation into the gene for the enzyme that activates the desired hormone, and achieve the desired result in less time.

Therefore, the statement that manipulation of genes leads to disruption of the course of evolution makes no sense. Moreover, genetically modified organisms have been used in applied medicine since 1982, when genetically engineered human insulin produced using genetically modified bacteria was registered as a medicine. But people either don’t know this or prefer not to remember.

Arguments of the opposing party

However, opponents of GMOs argue that the bacteria and plasmids that were used to create GMOs are not going away. “At least some of them remain and penetrate into our body or into the body of animals when they eat GM plants. And when they get into the stomach and intestines, the same thing happens as when creating GMOs - transgenization (modification, mutation), only this time cells of the walls of the stomach and intestines, as well as the microflora of the digestive system. If anyone doesn’t know: about 70 percent of the human immune system is located in the intestines. Immunity falls, plasmids and GM inserts through the blood enter all organs, muscles and even the skin of a person or animal and They also modify them. That is, even by eating the meat of an animal that was fed GMO food, a person becomes infected. The worst thing is that this also applies to germ cells. From mutant germ cells, children will appear with genes from other species and classes of plants and animals. Most of these genetic "chimeras" will also be infertile.

Fortunately, things have not yet reached the point of pronounced external manifestations of these processes. And we are unlikely to turn into an ear of corn or develop gills. But we will get sick more, say opponents of GMOs, and we will become infertile.

At the same time, it is obvious that radiation from nuclear explosions and man-made disasters has long been absorbed into the world around us and is a powerful mutagenic factor, drinking water it is chlorinated and fluorinated, all sorts of chemical and biological nastiness gets into it... Around us there is a powerful electromagnetic background, mercury vapor from “long-term” light bulbs, tetraethyl lead in leaded gasoline, formaldehyde fumes from furniture made from chipboard. Doesn't all this affect a person? It influences and how! And GMOs are unlikely to be the main source of all our problems here.

What was old Bashti guessing?

But now it’s time to remember the old leader Bashti from Jack London’s story “Jerry the Islander”. For those who have not read it, let’s say that it is about the adventures of the red terrier Jerry, the white man’s dog among the cannibal savages of the Solomon Islands, of which Bashti was the leader. The priest of the tribe, intending to eat Jerry, began to incite the tribe against him, they say, they should cut him into pieces and give it to all the men, so that the dog’s courage passed into each of them. Bashti saved Jerry from the cauldron, but this is what he said: “I lived a long time and ate a lot of pigs. Who dares to say that these pigs entered me and made me a pig?” “I ate a lot of fish,” continued Bashti, “but "Not a single fish scale grew on my skin. And gills did not appear on my neck. And you all, looking at me, know that I never grew a fin on my back." That is, it was Jack London who understood even at that time, albeit purely intuitively, that once you have cooked and eaten someone or something, the genetics of what you eat will not affect you in any way.

Experiences are different

However, there were some experiments that proved the harmfulness of GMOs. Yes, there were experiments, but what kind of experiments were they? Thus, in 1999, an article by Arpad Pusztai was published, which concerned the toxic effect of genetically modified potatoes on rats. The gene for a poisonous lectin from snowdrops was inserted into potatoes in order to increase the potato's resistance to nematodes. Feeding potatoes to granivorous rats that don't normally eat them has shown toxic effects, but what does that prove? The fact that initially poisonous food is harmful? The publication itself was preceded by a loud scandal, since the results were presented before peer review by scientists. The explanation proposed by Pusztai, that the method of gene transfer rather than the lectin was most likely to blame, was not supported by most scientists, since the data presented in the article was not enough for this conclusion. By the way, the development of transgenic potatoes with the lectin gene was then immediately stopped.

Russian researcher Irina Ermakova conducted a study on rats, which, in her opinion, shows the pathological effect of genetically modified soybeans on the reproductive qualities of animals. Because the findings were widely discussed in the press but not published in peer-reviewed journals, many scientists repeated her experiments. As a result, it was concluded that her results contradict the standardized data of other researchers who worked with the same soybean variety and did not reveal its toxic effect on the body. Now let's return to our everyday level.

Let's take a group of children or adults, it doesn't matter, and we'll feed them mainly black caviar for two weeks. You can bet that by the end of the experiment, most of them will have significantly enlarged livers and, therefore, black caviar is dangerous to health! However, any study also involves a variety of influencing factors. Thus, artificial feeding of caddisfly Hydropsyche borealis larvae with Bt corn pollen demonstrated an increase in their mortality by 20 percent. But when the same authors reproduced the experiment under natural conditions, they did not observe any effect of transgenic pollen on the viability of caddisflies! Many animals in captivity do not reproduce at all, so are GMOs to blame for this too?

It is interesting that even church hierarchs today say that they are not harmful, but, on the contrary, useful, since they make it possible to provide food for the growing population of the planet. Muslims consider them halal, and Jews consider them kosher. However, as you can see, there are people who are against GMOs. And in most cases, these are either individual scientists who carry out, let’s say, not always clean experiments, journalists who specialize in sensations, or Greenpeace, which also needs sensations. But after they have already scared everyone, it turns out that most often GMOs have nothing to do with it. But for some reason their opponents do not oppose the irradiation of seeds, which is carried out when breeding new plant varieties. But the seeds are irradiated with gamma rays and then sown. So, mutagenic irradiation of seeds is good, but changing the genotype through agrobacteria is bad and terrible?

The most thorough check

By the way, precisely because GMO products are truly new, in a number of countries there are percentage bans on the use of such products. In Japan, the allowed content in the product is 5 percent, in Europe - no more than 0.9 percent, and in the USA - 10 percent. Almost all countries in the world require product labeling indicating the GMO content. Moreover, no one says that GM products are absolutely harmless; everywhere and always there is a certain risk. For example, it has been proven that some of these products are not suitable for allergy sufferers. These can be, for example, Brazil nuts, in which the content of one of the amino acids has been artificially increased. It turned out that this particular protein causes a form of allergy in people.

The abbreviation GMO refers to a genetically modified organism whose genome has been altered. Of course, traditional breeding, which has been used for several centuries, also changes the genome of plants and animals, giving them the necessary properties. But, unlike this usual, long-term method, the genetic material of GMOs changes much faster, targeted, in the conditions of scientific laboratories.

In recent years, transgenic products have been talked about very often. Ardent opponents and convinced supporters - scientists, experts, journalists and ordinary people argue on this topic. Supporters declare it a means of saving humanity from hunger and disease. And opponents warn of the possible destruction of humanity when it switches to GMOs.

What are the harms and benefits of GMO products, what do scientists say about them? Let's try to understand this difficult issue. At the same time, we will take as the basis for our “investigation” the recently published reports on GMOs by American and Russian scientists.

What are GMO products? Why are they produced?

The basis of transgenic products are ordinary plants in which one or more genes have been artificially replaced in the DNA molecule. That is, genetically modified crops contain in their DNA the genes of other plants or even animals. This transformation makes it possible to obtain different, new properties. In particular, they are more productive, adapted to weather conditions, and are not damaged by pests.

Sometimes they even buy healing properties. But still, the main goal of genetic engineering is to increase productivity. Transgenic organisms pass on their new, changed properties to inheritance.

Let us note that the production of such products is a very extensive and promising business. All over the world they are growing GMOs. They just don’t consume it everywhere. A lot of GM products are imported into Russia. Our country purchases them from foreign manufacturers. We import soybeans and flour made from it, potatoes, corn, rice, etc.

Such products are extremely attractive for retail chains: their cost is usually several orders of magnitude lower than natural products (not genetically modified) herbal products. In particular, the modified one, which we recently reviewed, costs 4-5 times less than its natural counterpart.

Supporters of such products consider them harmless, just like conventional breeding. After all, many familiar vegetables and fruits are the result of long, painstaking work of breeding scientists. And nothing, they are still alive.

Opponents, including greens, believe that in the future we will see negative consequences of today's consumption of GMOs. Most likely, our children and grandchildren will have to answer for our frivolity and gullibility.

And that is to say, all new medicinal and biological preparations that affect our body in one way or another initially undergo lengthy tests in the laboratory, and then on animals. And only after that they go to pharmacies. Transgenic products hit the shelves almost immediately, without going through any lengthy testing.

In general, as always, there are more questions than answers. Let's look at the opinions of scientists:

The benefits or harm of GMO products: the opinion of American scientists

In the United States, a report was prepared based on research into the effects of GM crops on human health. The National Academies of Science, Medicine and Engineering contributed to the report.

It covers the analysis of 900 scientific papers, 700 comments from various members of the public. The opinions of numerous experts were taken into account. More than two dozen independent experts wrote their reviews of this work.

As a result, the harm of GMO products has not been proven. The authors of the report gave their conclusion about their harmlessness.

The second group includes crops that are resistant to herbicides (they are used to kill weeds). According to scientists, more than 90% of all crops grown in the United States contain such a resistance gene. They pose no harm to humans.

Opinion of Russian scientists

RAS scientists also analyzed numerous authoritative publications on the impact of GM products on human health. A report on this topic has been published. Scientists came to the conclusion that sufficient confirmation harmful influence There are no modified products.

In addition, the results of a ten-year study that was conducted in the laboratory on animals were analyzed. Thus, the experiment used 630 experimental rats, as well as 3000 of their offspring. Half of all animals were fed regular food. The other half were given GM foods. According to the results of the study, no significant changes in the health status of animals from both groups were identified.

The report's authors also analyzed numerous data on the impact of GMOs on human health collected over the past 20 years. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the consumption of such products did not cause an increase in the level of oncological diseases, or other pathologies in humans and animals.

On the contrary, Russian scientists argue that there are significant benefits to GMO products: they contain fewer insecticides, are not contaminated with diseases, and are also more productive.

I was even once forced to speak out about GMO products and explain to the whole country that in the stomach, food breaks down into the simplest impersonal molecules from which there can be no additional harm. But it’s quite difficult to convince people excited by the press...

Moreover, some Russian experts warn that any new varietal varieties of plants used in agriculture require mandatory safety analysis. Each new crop must be thoroughly tested, regardless of how it was developed.

Conclusion

Are they useful or harmful to people? transgenic products? It is the will of each person to buy them or not. Much time will pass, generations will change before humanity finds a final answer to this question. In the meantime, it is still not closed.

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The problem of finding new sources of food for humans in the modern world is more acute than ever. There are more and more people, and everyone needs fresh, high-quality and nutritious food. One solution to this problem is GMOs, products obtained through genetic engineering. But are they useful for humans?

The definition of genetically modified organisms (this is what GMO stands for) is much broader than food products with new properties. This term in science refers to any organism genetic code which has been artificially modified in order to obtain specified properties for this organism.

Changes in the genetic code in living organisms in nature occur constantly and are called mutations, i.e. spontaneous change in genotype. Mutations can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful to an organism depending on whether they help the organism survive.

Most mutations are neutral in their effect and do not manifest themselves in any way or their manifestations are insignificant. Beneficial mutations form the basis for the future evolution of the species. Carriers of harmful mutations are most often not viable or cannot have offspring, which makes it possible to reduce the impact of harmful mutations on the species as a whole. It is believed that approximately one in a million genes on the planet contains a mutation.

Considering that the human genetic code includes more than two million genes, we can say that every person is a carrier of one or more mutations, usually neutral and asymptomatic.

Man has long interfered with the course of evolution in order to obtain organisms with the properties he needed. Artificial selection made it possible to breed great amount breeds of domestic animals and varieties of agricultural and ornamental plants. In essence, selection is a method of indirect human intervention in the genetic code of living organisms. As a result of such selection, animals and plants appear with the properties that are necessary for humans.

GMOs are the next stage of artificial selection. Genetic engineering makes it possible to obtain organisms with desired properties already in the first generation, avoiding the appearance of individuals with undesirable characteristics and their culling. Processes that occur in nature and are adopted by humans can occur much faster in artificial conditions with the help of genetic engineering.

Thus, An organism that has undergone a purposeful change in its genotype is considered genetically modified.. In a narrower sense, when it comes to Food Industry, refers to organisms into whose genotype genes uncharacteristic for them were artificially introduced. The term applies to animals, plants and microorganisms, and in no case to people, including because experiments in the field of human cloning are prohibited in most countries.

How GMO foods are produced

The most common way to obtain GMO products is through transgenic organisms. The essence of the method is that the sequence of genes characteristic of one of the organisms is introduced into the DNA of another species. In this way, organisms are obtained that have the properties of a different species (potatoes resistant to the Colorado potato beetle, microorganisms capable of synthesizing human insulin, etc.).

In the process of creating GMO products, there are the following stages:

• Isolation of an isolated gene in a donor organism;
• Creation of a vector - a biochemical construct that allows you to introduce a DNA sequence into a cell without destroying it;
• Transfer of the vector into the organism under study. The vector is the carrier of the necessary gene, the mechanism of its interaction with the main organism has common features with the penetration of the virus, but it would not be entirely correct to compare them with each other;
• The vector is inserted into the genetic code of the organism, causing its changes;
• The last stage is the selection of those organisms that have been successfully modified and the exclusion from reproduction of those that have not received new properties.

After all these procedures, those organisms that exhibit the specified properties are selected for further reproduction. Those individuals that are not affected by changes in most cases remain unchanged.

More complex technologies genetic engineering on this moment have not received widespread in agriculture and food industry. They are used mainly for research purposes to study and develop better genetic engineering methods.

However, since the technology is still new and its full implications and impact on later generations are not yet fully understood, mass use of GMOs is still a long way off.

Are GMO products harmful?

What should an ordinary person do - buy any products without fear, or prefer those whose producers do not use GMOs? There is still no clear answer to this question even among scientists. Research is being conducted to determine the dangers or safety of consuming GMO foods.

In modern science, the benefits and harms of GMOs are the subject of constant debate. Some researchers argue that throughout his evolution, man has repeatedly encountered the fact that the genetic material of the foods he eats has changed dramatically, and this has had no effect negative influence Therefore, GMOs are absolutely harmless.

The evidence is given what's in digestive system all macromolecules break down into simpler compounds, which are the same for all living organisms. The individual nucleotides into which the DNA macromolecule breaks down cannot harm a person, since they are contained in his body in the same form.

In addition, the historical factor also serves as proof of the harmlessness of GMOs. Changing the diet, including species that had never been eaten before, the discovery of new lands with completely unusual animals and plants, which people also began to eat, did not bring any harm.

However, there are studies on mice that show that when consuming exclusively GMO foods after 3-4 generations, the risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and other metabolic diseases significantly increases.

From scientists who support GMOs, such studies are sharply criticized, since the set of products used in them corresponded to the diet of a person, not a rodent, which could serve as an additional provoking factor.

The two camps of scientists are quite firmly in their positions, bringing ever new evidence of their correctness, analyzing the pros and cons of GMOs. The results of research and the competence of its implementation are always questioned by supporters of the opposite idea. However, convincing evidence clearly confirming the benefits or harm of GMOs has not yet been obtained. Therefore, whether or not to buy products that contain them remains a personal choice of the consumer, and the manufacturer is obliged to indicate on the packaging the presence or absence of GMOs.

GMOs in Russia today

In our country, the attitude towards GMOs is ambiguous, as well as all over the world. Since their harm or benefit has not been clearly proven, manufacturers and importers of food products are required to mark the GMO content on the product packaging. This is necessary so that the consumer can decide for himself whether he wants to eat food that is not always healthy.

In 2016, the State Duma adopted a resolution banning the cultivation of GMO products in Russia. Given the import substitution policy, it has become difficult to see modified food products on store shelves.

The question of the appropriateness of such a measure remains open. If GMOs are truly harmful to the health of future generations, then it is necessary to protect people from them until technology makes them safe. If GMOs do not in fact pose any danger, then our country may have deprived itself of the opportunity to avoid a food crisis in the future.

According to sociological surveys, the attitude towards GMOs in Russia is rather negative - more than 2/3 of the population would not buy genetically modified products. However, there is no need to deny low level knowledge in the field of biology, and especially genetics, among the adult population of our country, therefore it was wrong to consider public opinion authoritative.

How can GMOs be useful?

Genetic engineering technologies make it possible to significantly speed up the selection process and obtain individuals with the necessary characteristics already in the first generation, which is extremely rarely achieved with conventional selection. In addition, the percentage of culling individuals that do not have the necessary characteristics is significantly reduced. This allows you to reduce the costs of selecting and breeding new varieties and breeds, therefore, the final price of the product will be slightly lower.

Genetic engineering techniques open up new possibilities for breeders, such as transferring genes between species that cannot interbreed. This makes it possible to create fundamentally new varieties of plants and breeds of animals that would be impossible to breed in any other way. For example, such species include potato varieties that are resistant to the Colorado potato beetle, and many other agricultural plants that are not susceptible to pests.

According to statistics collected for 2014, productivity genetically modified plants up to two times higher only due to resistance to pests. Growing GMO crops can significantly reduce the cost of insecticides, as well as losses from pests and unfavorable climatic conditions.

A large harvest makes food cheaper and more accessible. In developing countries, this makes it possible to provide a sufficient amount of food to the entire population; in developed countries, it is possible to reduce food costs and make food more varied.

Work is underway to create plant varieties that produce increased yields and are also able to tolerate unusual climates (cold-resistant forms of fruit). This will make many fruits and vegetables more accessible, reducing the cost of their transportation and the inevitable loss of product.

Raising GMO animals is much more complex and there is much less research in this area. In nature, the frequency of viable mutations among animals, especially mammals and birds, is much lower than among plants. Therefore, work related to genetic modifications gives much less results. Therefore, the problems facing livestock breeders are mainly solved through conventional selection, which is still far from becoming a thing of the past.

A few words about the non-food use of GMOs. In forestry, tree species with increased content cellulose. This allows the use of wood in much smaller quantities, reducing deforestation while maintaining the volume of production of paper and other cellulose products.

The pharmaceutical industry uses soil bacteria with an additional gene that allows them to synthesize human insulin. This is how the closest analogue of insulin is obtained for patients diabetes mellitus. Its bioavailability is much higher than that of pork or bovine, it is hypoallergenic and much more effective.

In addition to insulin, other recombinant human proteins have been created - interferons, hormones of the endocrine glands. Before the advent of GMOs, they could only be obtained from donor blood, which created a risk of drug contamination, or similar substances obtained from animal blood, which have very limited compatibility with human tissues, could be used.

Using examples of modified organisms, we study the patterns of various processes in the human body, which will help in the future to find drugs that slow down aging, cures for chronic diseases that are now considered incurable.

Currently, the development of research in the field of genetic engineering is significantly slowed down by debates about the dangers or benefits of GMOs. Laws that prohibit the cultivation of GMOs have been adopted not only in our country. Protecting the population from possible harmful effects modified foods, such laws limit the ability to make GMO foods safer.

Advantages and disadvantages

So far, most of the arguments for and against GMOs remain in the realm of speculative conclusions. To obtain definitive evidence of benefit or harm genetically engineered products A person needs time, and it will be possible to put an end to this dispute only after several generations. At the moment, it is premature to talk about the clear need to grow GMOs or the dangers of such products. Now attention should be paid to increasing the level of biological knowledge among the population.

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Everyone already knows that GMOs exist. Many people suspect that GMOs are sold under the guise regular products, but no one knows exactly how this achievement of science will end for humanity. The whole world is divided into those who create, protect and produce these products and those who scold and fear. For a while, most of the products that were in supermarkets and smaller stores were full of “No GMO” stickers and people formed a stereotype that GMOs are harmful and everything connected with them is bad, because why would the government and manufacturers? worry so much? At the same time, many television channels and newspapers began to write and show television programs about the dangers of GMO products, increasing tension around this topic.

However, even in these conditions, most people are faced with the problem that they do not have much choice: they still have to go to the supermarket and take what they have enough money for. After all, everyone knows what prices are for high-quality and environmentally friendly clean products in specialized stores, which are now not available in every city.
Products with GMOs are always cheap, and with those that have the coveted sticker, not everything is clear either - there really are no GMOs or the manufacturers are lying - after all, in order to make a profit, the goods must be sold, and the price must be set so that people will buy. As a result, there are no guaranteed ways to protect yourself from consuming harmful GMOs.

Let's figure out what genetically modified products are and what they mean benefits or harms of GMOs.

Briefly about what GMOs are

Many people know from biology lessons that hereditary information about an organism is located in each of its cells in a DNA molecule. This molecule is a sequence of genes and when interacting with the external environment they create a phenotype, i.e. external manifestations in the body, that is, how it looks, metabolic parameters and the course of biochemical processes inside it.
When changes are made to the DNA molecule endowed by nature (adding genes, removing them, or changing them), the body can acquire new properties. That is, a genetically modified organism is an organism that has been artificially changed by adding a foreign gene that is not inherent to it to its DNA. Scientists have reached such a level that they can already introduce scorpion genes into the DNA of potatoes or add some peanut gene to soybeans. This is done with the aim of providing a certain product with new properties.
For example, our potatoes are now not afraid of the Colorado potato beetle, and soybeans with the peanut gene are 100% resistant to external adverse conditions. natural factors. What breeders did in several decades, modern genetic engineers do in a couple of years. The declared goal of such scientists (at least the one that sounds good) is to feed the population globe. But opponents of GMOs look at it a little differently: they see the GMO race as the ever-increasing appetites of private corporations for profit and globalization.

So is there any harm from GMOs or not?

Today it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of whether there is harm from consuming GMO products. Too little time has passed since the introduction of GMOs into food products; maybe in 70-100 years there will already be results of their influence on humans, or maybe not. In any case, now this “experiment” is being carried out on all people on the planet. There are many horror stories about the influence of GMOs on the synthesis of protein molecules in human body and metabolic disorders and cannot be considered completely erroneous. Experiments conducted on rats are definitely not convincing.
The queues to see geneticists have grown recently, as it seems healthy people Without bad habits and hereditary diseases, in recent years, children are increasingly being born with genetic “damages” in their DNA. Modern science is not able to answer this question today, despite its seemingly incredible achievements. Therefore, we believe that you should not eat GMO products if possible. This way you can be calmer for your children and grandchildren.

What to do?

The debate about the benefits or harms of GMOs is still ongoing. Even if desired, in today's urban living conditions, it is most likely not possible to completely avoid the consumption of GMO-containing products. But everyone can give up dubious sausages and other semi-finished products and buy something more natural. Or make compote for children instead of buying soda. The choice is yours.

Today, in many countries (including Russia), the concept of GMOs has been turned into almost equivalent to the concepts of “products that cause mutations and tumors.” GMOs are being vilified from all sides and for a variety of reasons: they are unsafe, tasteless, and threaten the country’s food independence. Are these same GMOs really that scary, and what are they really? Let’s try to figure it out.

GMO - deciphering the concept

Genetically modified organisms are living organisms modified by genetic engineering methods. In a narrow sense, the concept applies to plants. Previously, breeders like Michurin had to achieve certain useful (from a human point of view) properties in plants using various tricks: grafting cuttings of one tree onto another or selecting for sowing seeds of plants only with certain qualities, and then wait long and hard for the results that persisted only after a couple of generations of plants. Today you can transfer the right gene to the right place and get what you want.

Thus, GMO is an acceleration of evolution and directing it in the right direction.

How are GMOs created?

To create a GMO plant, several techniques can be used. Today the most popular method is transgenes. To do this, the desired gene (for example, drought resistance) is isolated from the DNA chain in its pure form, and then introduced into the DNA of the modified plant.

Genes can be taken from related species, and then the process is called cisgenesis. When a gene is taken from species that are distant from the given organism, they speak of transgenesis.

It is about transgenesis that there are terrible stories. Having learned that there is now wheat with the scorpion gene, many begin to fantasize about whether those who eat it will now grow a tail and claws, and whether poison will appear in their saliva. Numerous illiterate publications on websites and forums where the topic of GMOs is actively discussed add fuel to the fire.

This is not the only thing that “specialists” who have little knowledge of biology and biochemistry scare potential consumers of GMO products.

Products containing GMOs

Today it is agreed that GMO products are everything that is genetically modified organisms or all products that contain components of such organisms. That is, not only genetically modified corn or potatoes will be GMO food, but also sausages, which, in addition to sodium nitrate, toilet paper and liver, will contain GMO soy. But the meat of a cow that was fed GMO wheat will not be a GMO product. And that's why.

Are GMOs built into our cells?

Journalists who have not read any normal physiology and biochemistry, who understand the relevance and relevance of the topic of GMOs, but are too lazy to seriously study the issue, launched a “duck” to the masses that the cells of GMO products, entering our stomach and intestines, are absorbed into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. organs and tissues where they cause mutations and cancer.

It is with great regret that we have to note that this fantasy plot is untenable. Any food in the stomach and intestines breaks down into its component parts under the influence of gastric juice, pancreatic secretion and intestinal enzymes. And these components are not genes or even proteins, but:

Then, in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract, all this delight is absorbed into the bloodstream and used either for:

• getting energy (sugar)
• or for its reserves (fats)
• or as a building material for human proteins (amino acids)

And if, for example, you take a certain genetically modified organism (say, an ugly apple that looks more like a cucumber), then it will easily be chewed, swallowed and broken down into its component parts in the same way as any other thing that has not undergone genetic modification. Let's give another somewhat strange/creepy example, but which will explain more popularly that genes are not integrated anywhere when assimilated into the gastrointestinal tract: if a crocodile (or cannibal) eats a child with Down syndrome and eats a healthy child, both will be equally absorbed and by no one will not affect the crocodile or cannibal in any way.

Other GMO horror stories

The second, no less chilling story concerns the fact that transgenes are integrated into the human genome and lead to, God knows what, terrible consequences, such as cancer and infertility.

Cancer risk: The French first wrote about cancer in mice fed genetically modified grain in 2012. In fact, the leader of the experiment, Gilles-Eric Séralini (Institute of Biology, University of Caen, France), sampled 200 Sprague-Dawley rats, a third of which were fed genetically modified corn grain, a third on genetically modified corn treated with a herbicide, and a third on regular corn. corn kernels. As a result, those female rats that ate GMOs grew tumors in 80% of cases within two years. Males developed liver and kidney pathologies on such a diet. It is characteristic that a third of the rats on a normal diet also died from tumors of various organs, and in general this line of rats is prone to the spontaneous appearance of tumors, regardless of the nature of the diet. So the purity of the experiment is questionable, and it was considered unscientific and untenable.

Previously, similar research was carried out in 2005 by biologist Ermakova (Russia). She made a report at a conference in Germany on high mortality mice fed genetically modified soybeans. After that, this statement, as confirmed in a scientific experiment, went for a walk through cities and villages, driving young mothers into hysterics, forced to feed their children artificial mixtures, which were simply filled with this GMO soybean. Subsequently, five Nature Biotechnology experts agreed on the ambiguity of the Russian experiment and did not recognize its reliability.

In conclusion of this section, I would like to write that even if some piece of foreign DNA (as some sources write about) gets into the human bloodstream, then in no way this genetic information will be integrated anywhere and will not lead to anything. Yes, in nature there are cases of insertion of pieces of the genome into a foreign one. For example, some bacteria spoil the genetics of flies in this way. But such phenomena have not been described in higher animals. In addition, there is more than enough different genetic information in all other products without any GMOs. And if they are still not integrated into our genetic material, then we can continue to safely eat everything that the body can digest and assimilate.

GMOs: harm or benefit

The American company Monsanto introduced genetically modified cotton and soybeans to the market in 1982. They are also the author of the herbicide Roundup, which kills all vegetation except GMO-modified vegetation.

In 1996, when Monssanto's GMO products were released onto the markets, competing corporations, saving their income, began a large-scale campaign to limit the circulation of products containing GMOs. The first to mark the persecution of GMOs was the British scientist Arpad Pusztai, who fed GMO potatoes to rats. True, later experts tore to smithereens all the scientist’s calculations.

Potential harm from GMO products for Russians

• No one hides the fact that on lands sown with GMO grains, nothing ever grows except themselves. This is due to the fact that herbicide-resistant soybean or cotton varieties are not stained by the herbicide, which can be sprayed in any quantity, causing the total extinction of other vegetation.
• The most common herbicide is glyphosate. In fact, it is sprayed even before the ripening of what goes into food, quickly decomposes in plants and is not stored in the soil. But resistant GMO plants allow you to spray a lot, a lot of it, which increases the risk of its accumulation in GMO vegetation. Glyphosate is also known to cause obesity and bone growth. And in the USA and Latin America there are a lot of overweight people.
• Many GMO seeds are designed for only one planting. That is, what grows out of them will no longer produce offspring. This is more of a commercial ploy, as this increases the sales of GMO seeds. There are excellent GMO plants that give excellent results to the next generations.
• Allergization. Since some artificial genetic mutations (for example, in potatoes or soybeans) can increase its allergenic properties, they say that all GMOs are powerful allergens. But some varieties of peanuts, devoid of their usual proteins, do not cause allergies even in those who previously suffered from it specifically for this product.
• GMO plants can displace other varieties of their species. Due to the nature of pollination, they may reduce the number of other varieties of their species. That is, if two plots nearby are planted with GMO and regular wheat, there is a risk that the GMO will displace the regular one, pollinating it. Who would let her grow up next to her?
• Dependence on companies that hold the seed fund. Having abandoned its own seed funds and switched only to GMO seeds, especially disposable ones, the state will sooner or later become food dependent on the holders of the seed fund of GMO plants.

A response to the aspirations of the people

After repeated replication in all media mass media tales and horror stories about GMO products, the vector of wide public resonance was directed against the machinations of imperialism, completely denying the possibility of expensive Russians consuming harmful and unsafe products containing GMOs or their traces.

Rospotrebnadzor, meeting the wishes of its compatriots, took part in numerous conferences on this issue. In March 2014, at a conference in Italy, a delegation from Rospotrebnadzor took part in technical consultations on the low content of GMOs in food products and the low content of GMO products themselves in Russian trade turnover. Thus, today a policy has been adopted towards almost complete exclusion of GMO products from the food supply. Russian market and the use of GMO plants in agriculture was delayed, although in 2013 it was planned to begin using GMO seeds (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 23, 2013).

The Ministry of Education and Science went even further and, taking into account people’s aspirations, proposed instead of the “GMO-free” label to use a barcode that would contain all the information about genetic modification of this product or its absence. It's a good start, but it will be impossible to read the barcode without a special device.

CONCLUSION: the GMO problem is clearly overblown, the real consequences of long-term consumption of GMO products are unknown, authoritative scientific experiments To date, no work has been carried out on this issue.

For those who are still afraid of eating GMO foods, here’s full list products containing GMOs.

Products

Manufacturers using GMOs in their technologies

Chocolate products Hershey's Cadbury Fruit&Nut Mars M&M, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way Cadbury chocolate, cocoa Ferrero Nestle chocolate "Nestlé", "Russia" Chocolate drink Nestle Nesquik Soft drink Sosa-Cola "Coca-Cola" Sosa-Cola Sprite, Fanta, Kinley tonic, Fruittime Pepci-Co Pepsi "7-Up", "Fiesta", "Mountain Dew" Kellogg's breakfast cereals Campbell Soups Uncle Bens Mars Rice Knorr Sauces Lipton tea Parmalat cookies Seasonings, mayonnaise, Hellman’s sauces Seasonings, mayonnaise, Heinz sauces Baby food Nestle, Hipp, Abbot Labs Similac Yoghurt, kefir, cheese, baby food Denon McDonald's (McDonald's) chain of fast food restaurants Chocolate, chips, coffee, baby food Kraft (Kraft) Ketchups, sauces. Heinz Foods Baby food, Delmi products Unilever (Unilever)

JSC "Nizhny Novgorod Oil and Fat Plant" (mayonnaise "Ryaba", "Vprok", etc.) Bonduel products (Hungary) - beans, corn, green peas CJSC "Baltimore-Neva" (St. Petersburg) - ketchups CJSC "Mikoyanovsky Meat Processing Plant" (Moscow) - pates, minced meat JSC UROP FOOD GB" (Nizhny Novgorod region) - soups "Galina Blanca" Concern "White Ocean" (Moscow) - chips "Russian Potatoes" OJSC "Lianozovsky Dairy Plant" (Moscow) - yoghurts, "Miracle Milk", "Miracle Chocolate" OJSC "Cherkizovsky MPZ" (Moscow) - frozen minced meat LLC "Campina" (Moscow region) - yoghurts, baby food LLC "MK Gurman" (Novosibirsk) - pates Frito LLC (Moscow region) - Layz chips LLC "Ehrmann" (Moscow region) - yoghurts LLC "Unilever CIS" (Tula) - mayonnaise "Calve" Factory "Bolshevik" (Moscow) - cookies "Yubileinoe" "Nestlé" (Switzerland, Finland) - dry milk mixture "Nestogen", puree "Vegetables with beef"

List of GMO food manufacturers

LLC "Daria - semi-finished products" LLC "Klinsky Meat Processing Plant" MPZ "Tagansky" MPZ "CampoMos" JSC "Viciunai" LLC "MLM-RA" LLC "Talosto-products" LLC "Sausage plant "Bogatyr" LLC "ROS Mari Ltd" Unilever: Lipton (tea) Brooke Bond (tea) "Conversation" (teas) Calve (mayonnaise, ketchup) Rama (oil) "Pyshka" (margarine) "Delmi" (mayonnaise, yogurt, margarine) "Algida" (ice cream) Knorr (seasonings) Manufacturing company Kellog's: Corn Flakes Frosted Flakes (cereals) Rice Krispies (cereals) Corn Pops (cereals) Smacks (cereals) Froot Loops (colored ring flakes) Apple Jacks (apple flavored cereal rings) Afl-bran Apple Cinnamon/ Blueberry (bran with apple, cinnamon, blueberry flavors) Chocolate Chip (chocolate chips) Pop Tarts (filled cookies, all flavors) Nulri grain (toast with filling, all types) Crispix (cookies) All-Bran (cereals) Just Right Fruit & Nut (cereals) Honey Crunch Corn Flakes Raisin Bran Crunch (cereals) Cracklin'Oat Bran (flakes) Manufacturing company Mars: M&M'S Snickers Milky Way Nestle Crunch (chocolate rice cereal) Milk Chocolate Nestle (chocolate) Nesquik (chocolate drink) Cadbury (Cadbury/Hershey's) Fruit & Nut

Manufacturing company Nestle: Nescafe (coffee and milk) Maggi (soups, broths, mayonnaise, Nestle (chocolate) Nestea (tea) Neseiulk (cocoa) Manufacturing company Hershey's: Toblerone (chocolate, all types) Mini Kisses (candies) Kit-Kat (chocolate bar) Kisses (candies) Semi-Sweet Baking Chips (cookies) Milk Chocolate Chips (cookies) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (peanut butter) Special Dark (dark chocolate) Milk Chocolate (milk chocolate) Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup) Special Dark Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup) Strawberry Syrup (strawberry syrup) Manufacturing company Heinz: Ketchup (regular & no salt) Chili Sauce Heinz 57 Steak Sauce Coca-Cola manufacturing company: Coca Cola Sprite Charry Cola Minute Maid Orange Minute Maid Grape Manufacturing company PepsiCo: Pepsi Pepsi Cherry Mountain Dew Frito manufacturing company - Lay / PepsiCo: (GM ingredients may be present in oil and other ingredients) Lays Potato Chips (all) Cheetos (all) Manufacturing company Cadbury/Schweppes: Dr. Pepper Pringles manufacturer Procter&Gamble: Pringles (chips in Original, LowFat, Pizzalicious, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Cheezeums flavors).

The same product manufacturing company can produce three categories of the same product:

• the first is for domestic consumption (in industrialized countries)
• the second is for export to other developed countries
• the third - for export to developing countries

The third category includes about 80% of food products, drinks, and tobacco products exported from the USA and Western European countries. According to the UN Food Commission, some Western firms are expanding the export of goods that are not only environmentally hazardous, but also prohibited in developed countries.

Meanwhile, more than two hundred titles food additives are not approved for use in Russia due to the incompleteness of the test package. Listing them would take too much space.

Let us name only the definitively prohibited and absolutely harmful preservatives and emulsifiers for humans:

Finally, I would like to name some dangerous preservatives and emulsifiers that can negatively affect your health. As a rule, labeling with their name is provided on product packaging.

• E121 - citrus red dye
• E123 - red amaranth
• E240 - preservative formaldehyde
• suspicious: E-104, E-122, E-141, E-150, E-171, E-173, E-180, E-241, E-477
• prohibited: E-103, E-105, E-111, E-125, E-126, E-130, E-152
• dangerous: E-102, E-110, E-120, E-124, E-127
• contribute to the development of oncology: E-131, E-142, E-210, E-211, E-212, E-213, E-215, E-216, G: 217, E-240, E-330
• harmful to skin: E-230, E-231, E-232, E-238
• contribute to the occurrence of rash: E-311, E-312 and E-313
• cause intestinal disorders: E-221, E-222, E-223, E-224 and E-226
• stomach upset: E-322, E-338, E-339, E-340, E-311, E-407, E-450, E-461, E-462, E-463, E-465, E-466
• increase pressure: E-250 and E-251
• increase cholesterol: E-320 and E-321